Vole

Vole

Vole  My walkabout today skirted the edge of a frozen lake.  While following a snowmobile track, I noticed these very small tracks in the snow.  Then, in a few feet, the Vole just stopped and looked up at me.  We were maybe 30 feet from the shoreline out on the snow-covered ice.  After I captured several clicks, it took off for the shore.  The meadow vole sometimes called the field mouse or meadow mouse, is found across Canada, Alaska, northern United States.  It is active year-round; usually at night.  It digs underground burrows, where it stores food for the winter and where the females give birth to their young.  This particular vole ran to the bank of the lake and into its burrow along the lakeshore.